Good day all. On short notice I am heading up to a cottage on the west arm of nippissing this weekend. Only experience I’ve had up that way is ice fishing the main lake. Any help with where to go, what structure to look for this time of year etc. My plan is cover some water with bottom bouncers and harnesses and go from there. Thanks for any input.
Off Topic Nippissing west arm
- Thread starter bigred
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FrankTheTank
Well-Known Member
Mepps blue fox 3 or 4 cant go wrong ive bassically only ever used those up there and we smash em hard everything bites em cast em out count to 6 close bailer and yell fish on
given the cold water i would focus on river inlets and river mouth and adjacent bays and try jig/minnow combos
we fish alot of northern water in spring and walleye activity is typically best in the river, at the mouth and in the shallow water around the mouth. we sometimes use spinner rigs but typical vertical or cast up current and bounce along bottom. Often a very light bite so stingers can be helpful. As Bassboy has noted the open water reefs, islands and rocks wont get active til July.
we fish alot of northern water in spring and walleye activity is typically best in the river, at the mouth and in the shallow water around the mouth. we sometimes use spinner rigs but typical vertical or cast up current and bounce along bottom. Often a very light bite so stingers can be helpful. As Bassboy has noted the open water reefs, islands and rocks wont get active til July.
We used to go there every year. Usually 1st or 2nd week of June. They could be a bit late making the exodus this year though. We had incredible luck on this shoal bouncing worm tipped jigs with stingers. (46.2303909, -80.1945399) Loads of Pickerel, the odd Pike and a few massive Sh!theads. Good luck and post a wicked report!
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@Teddy69 are you going to Mashkinonje Lodge? If so we are there the same week and depending on what species you are going for I could give you a few tips. Been going up for almost 10 years, the guy who used to own it, who now owns Paradise Cove (another really nice place and great hosts) is a great guide as well if you need one, mostly Muskie, but he does all species.
I don't know that part of the lake as well, Warren Bay is good fishing, but for walleye we usually use bottom bouncers with a slow death roll hook on a flouro leader, works well up there.
I can’t help you with west arm, I haven’t figure it out yet due to lack of time, but we are 20 minutes to the launch in Sturgeon and 25 to Lavigne so I’ll be working on it this year. I have fished the lake extensively on the east end/nand south Bay Area. At the end of may, beginning of June the 10-15fow range off of rock piles, reefs and islands will find you a lot of fish. We mainly troll harnesses behind bouncers or if the shadfly are up we’ll use slow death hooks behind them as someone else mentioned. I will stop just off a rock shoal in the evening and set up shop. We use ball heads and twisters with a bit of worm. Pretty simple stuff on Nippissing. I have a boat full of tackle, and I’ve been fishing it for years and could’ve gotten by with one small Plano 3500 and not much else. I don’t know how applicable this is on the west end, but my experience with Nippissing is that If you find em it’s not hard to get em!
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bow slayer
Well-Known Member
my dad just sold his farm in Lavigne ,it was on duck creek. I have fished that area alot the last 20 years. The pike love spinnerbaits and xraps. The walleye were mostly caught on worm harnesses ,jigs or j7 rapalas. The bridge area by Lakair has always been good to us.
@bow slayer : Does Lakeair camp still have a large camp ground, fished there years ago. I’m getting so old can’t hardly remember it.